Barb, I have a weird thing on my decolletage. It's like a little oval of raised, red shiny skin, sort of like a scar that is healing. But it has been there for several months now and has not gone away. It is about an eighth of an inch in diameter, and has remained consistent in color, shape and size since it appeared. It does not itch.

1) What is it?
2) Am I dying?
3) If I am dying, how long do I have to live?

I remember what happened. I deleted because it was sort of gratuitous cleavage. But here is new gratuitous cleavage. Happy V Day. Also, the thing has started getting really itchy. I'm sort of worried it's melanoma or something. The button is 1.5 inches in diameter, to give you scale.

Ha, Warren yes as soon as I saw that list of symptoms, I called my doctor. I have an appointment for tomorrow morning at 10am. My family has a history of skin cancer, and I have spent the better part of my life living in the tropics, so I am super paranoid.

I agree with the MD visit Courtney, especially if you can see a decent dermatologist due to your family history. Unless you've been breast stroking in a preschool sandbox, I think it is probably just a mild folliculitis from a generic staph. That'll clear up easy with some cream. You will be told to "put the balm on it". Unless it is cancer, or spontaneous external clone graft, or a government experiment, or a pimple.

I just realized that I had something similar to this on my calf during Coachella of last year, and I saw that it was still not completely healed in August! But now it's healed up but has a small scar. I didn't do anything to it though.

So basically, what koryp said.

Originally Posted by Hannahrain

What if your woman is one of those water-filled bag things with a hole in the middle that is designed to fall out of your hands when you try to pick it up?

I just got back from my PCP (I'm on HMO, so I have to see him first for everything). He said that it's not melanoma, but it could be squamous cell carcinoma or basal cell carcinoma. He also said something about a rat bite. But I'm not sure if that's some sort of medical jargon, or if he actually was saying that a rat bit me.

Did you say anything to lead him to believe you may have been snuggling with rodents? Glad you are seeing a dermatologist. Truth be told most other practitioners don't delve too far into dermatological problems. There are simply too many differential diagnosis to remember and since few of them are immediately life threatening, we can send you down to the geeky kid with glasses and the textbook of skin bugs to figure that stuff out. Good luck Courtney.

Ha, I am pretty sure "rat bite" was a description of how it looked. Or at least, I'm hoping that's what he meant. I have not encountered any rodents recently, and especially not rodents on my decolletage.

I hope the dermatologist doesn't want to do a "skin map" on me. I had a guy in LA that did that, and having someone spend the better part of an hour mapping every single freckle on every inch of your body from your scalp to your butt crack is kind of not very awesome.

Hhaaa. I know Kory. I researched it and I guess it's pretty legit. But I still asked to have an observer the room for the whole thing, because the doctor sort of skeeved me out.

Somewhere in the archived patient files of the USC Medical Center, there is an envelope full of photos of every single inch of my skin along with annotations of color, size and placement of each freckle. That's not creepy or anything. Really.

Hey kory, I am taking my NCLEX next fucking Wednesday. I'm shitting my pants because I am forgetting everything. I'm trying to study.. but there's so much. I am pretty much fainting in fear. Sigh. I signed up for an online review thing from the NBCSN and have been doing questions on that... but I don't know if I'm ready. What do you think?

Originally Posted by Hannahrain

What if your woman is one of those water-filled bag things with a hole in the middle that is designed to fall out of your hands when you try to pick it up?

I just got back from my PCP (I'm on HMO, so I have to see him first for everything). He said that it's not melanoma, but it could be squamous cell carcinoma or basal cell carcinoma. He also said something about a rat bite. But I'm not sure if that's some sort of medical jargon, or if he actually was saying that a rat bit me.

He referred me to a dermatologist for a biopsy.

Just discovered this thread...being a (ahem) doctor myself, a simple shave biopsy (just like it sounds) should be able to rule out basal cell. Although it is in a normally sun exposed area, your chances of it being something malignant are not that high even with a family history. It's more than likely a small cyst or minor infection around a hair follicle, but a biopsy is still a smart idea. Hope it goes well.

Thanks dekelou. I have had an irregular mole biopsied before, so I'm not super super freaked out, but I will definitely feel much better once this is all sorted out. The joys of being of Irish heritage and living in warm, sunny cities.